The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) will launch its campaign for the November 14 general election at a public meeting at Public Library Auditorium in Colombo on October 18.
The SEP is running 41 candidates in three electoral districts—Colombo, Jaffna and Nuwara Eliya. Longstanding SEP Political Committee members Vilani Peiris, P.T. Sampanthar and M. Thevarajah head the party slates in these districts.
The purpose of the SEP’s election intervention is to build an independent political movement of the working class based on international socialism against the growing threat of world war, austerity and attacks on democratic rights.
Newly-elected President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has called early elections to obtain a parliamentary majority to implement the harsh austerity program of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) initiated by the previous Ranil Wickremesinghe government.
Dissanayake, who heads the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and its electoral front—the National People’s Power (NPP), was catapulted into power by exploiting the mass opposition that erupted in 2022 against the collapse of living standards following the country’s debt default. He has, however, assured big business and foreign investors that the IMF agenda will proceed.
The SEP warns the working class that NPP/JVP government will not hesitate to unleash police-state measures against the opposition of workers, youth and rural poor to the worsening social crisis. The IMF is demanding the privatisation/restructuring of over 400 state-owned enterprises, the destruction of hundreds of thousand public sector jobs, further cuts to essential social services and more taxes on working people.
Central to the SEP’s campaign is the struggle of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), to build an international anti-war movement of the working class and youth against the mounting danger of world war. Even as Washington escalates the war against Russia in Ukraine and backs Israel’s extension of the genocide in Gaza throughout the Middle East, the US and its allies are accelerating war preparations against China.
The SEP insists that none of the burning issues confronting the working class, rural poor and youth can be resolved within the capitalist system and its division of the world into rival nation states. We oppose all forms of nationalism and communalism and seek to unite workers—Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim—in the fight for a Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka-Eelam based on a workers’ and peasants’ government to restructure society along socialist lines.
SEP speakers will elaborate on the basic themes of party’s campaign at the October 18 public meeting. We urge workers, youth, intellectuals and WSWS readers to participate in this important event and join the discussion on SEP’s political program and perspectives.
Date and time: Friday, October 18, at 4 P.M.
Venue: Public Library Auditorium, Colombo.